Chapter Ten: Roommates

The heater inside the car quickly raised the temperature, and with the cup of hot milk tea, Yan Xue soon began to feel warm.

To be honest, in a half-dead resort like this, you really couldn't buy any decent milk tea. It tasted heavily of artificial flavoring. After drinking half the cup while it was still hot, Yan Xue felt warm all over and simply couldn't bring herself to drink another drop.

"How much does this stuff cost here?" she asked Kang Ge.

"Twenty-five a cup." Kang Ge had only taken a few sips of his own. He had never been interested in such sickly sweet things, and this so-called milk tea was, without a doubt, the disgrace of the milk tea world.

"That's expensive! What a rip-off!" Yan Xue clutched her chest, looking pained. "This is daylight robbery! If I’d known, I would’ve just bought one!"

"I wouldn't have minded, but I was worried you might," Kang Ge said, looking at her with a smile.

Yan Xue felt her cheeks flush from the air conditioning. "What are you thinking! One cup, two straws?"

"It’s fine. This trip wasn't in vain, so the money for the tea wasn't wasted. Besides, we did drink some, didn't we? No loss there!" Kang Ge took the half-finished cup from Yan Xue and placed it in the cup holder. "Let's go. Qi Tianhua just said the victim’s identity has been confirmed and the family notified. We can go check out the rental she lived in before she died."

"That's great! Who was the victim? How old was she?" After talking with Xin Rui earlier, Yan Xue’s initial concerns had deepened. "Did Qi Tianhua send you her personal details?"

"He did. Take a look." Kang Ge took out his phone, opened his chat with Qi Tianhua, and handed it to Yan Xue.

As Kang Ge drove back to the city, Yan Xue went through the victim's information. While any murder was a regrettable tragedy, she felt a slight sense of relief upon seeing the victim's age.

The victim was named Cong Fangfang, twenty-six years old, unmarried. Her registered residence was in a county under the jurisdiction of W City. She had attended university in W City and started working at a local company immediately after graduation.

Judging by the records, she was quite ordinary, with nothing particularly noteworthy. As for her interpersonal relationships, that wasn't something the police could discern from the existing files.

Yan Xue glanced at Cong Fangfang’s photo, and the heart she had just settled began to sink again.

Cong Fangfang really did have a baby face. Despite being twenty-six, she looked like she was eighteen or nineteen in the photo.

The worries that had subsided moments ago rushed back into Yan Xue’s mind the instant she saw the victim’s face.

A baby-faced victim, dressed in a Lolita dress after death, and fixed to a carousel horse—when these details were pieced together, it was hard not to draw certain conclusions.

"Who reported the case?" Yan Xue asked after locking the phone screen and turning to Kang Ge.

"The landlord," Kang Ge replied, having received the information from Qi Tianhua. "Cong Fangfang’s rent was due, and she hadn't paid. The landlord couldn't reach her, and after searching many times, he inquired at her workplace, only to find out she hadn't been in for several days. Worried, he took their rental contract to the local police station to report her missing."

"The landlord must have been to the apartment then. There was nothing unusual inside, right?" Yan Xue believed that if there had been anything obviously wrong, the landlord wouldn't have bothered checking her workplace after failing to find her.

"There was indeed nothing unusual. That certainly wasn't the primary crime scene we are looking for. However, Cong Fangfang didn't live alone; she shared the apartment with others. Think about it: there were no signs of a struggle before she was killed. Clearly, she was incapacitated while completely off-guard and then bled out. There is no doubt this was the work of someone she knew."

"Right, then we must get to know Cong Fangfang’s roommates!" Yan Xue focused on their next objective.

When they arrived at the apartment complex, Kang Ge first consulted the property management regarding their security footage retention policy. Upon learning that they typically kept recordings for one month, he asked them to archive the footage from the complex's entrances and the elevator for the floor where Cong Fangfang lived for the last two weeks. Then, he and Yan Xue headed to the apartment.

Since it was Sunday, Cong Fangfang’s roommates happened to be home. Or rather, her roommates.

Yan Xue hadn't expected it to be a shared apartment with multiple people, and a mixed-gender one at that.

The door was opened by a woman in her twenties, tall and thin with short hair and an androgynous style—one of Cong Fangfang’s roommates.

It was a three-bedroom apartment with a small, dusty living room that clearly saw little use. There were three bedrooms: two close together with doors facing each other, and one further away across the living room.

The door to the room across the living room was closed, with the sound of a television playing inside. The other two rooms belonged to the short-haired girl and, naturally, Cong Fangfang.

The short-haired girl wasn't surprised by the police visit; it was clear she already knew about Cong Fangfang’s death.

"I never imagined Cong Fangfang would run into something like this. Such bad luck!" The cool-looking girl introduced herself as Li Xiaoguo. She was a straightforward, talkative person. "I didn't interact with her much, but living door-to-door, I felt she was a bit of a 'silly sweet' type. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would attract hatred. To be honest, I’m a blunt person with a bit of a temper; if it were a matter of offending people, I’d probably be at higher risk of being murdered than her!"

"Is your other roommate close to Cong Fangfang?" Yan Xue asked.

Li Xiaoguo chuckled. "Not at all. That person isn't close to any of us! He’s a total freak. I moved in three months before Cong Fangfang, and to this day, I haven't exchanged a single word with him. Forget communication; even eye contact is difficult. I don't know if you've ever seen people like that—when you look at him, he doesn't look at you, but the moment you look away, he sneaks a glance at you."

"That certainly sounds impolite," Yan Xue noted.

Li Xiaoguo sighed. "It’s beyond just being impolite! It just makes me feel uncomfortable. Every time I run into him, I get the creeps. Cong Fangfang always said it was fine and to just ignore him, but I never felt at ease. To be honest, as soon as I heard what happened to her, I started looking for a new place. I’ll move out as soon as I find one. My lease still has two months left, but I’d rather forfeit the rent than stay here any longer."

"You seem quite urgent," Kang Ge said, gesturing to Yan Xue. "Leave your contact information with her. If anything comes up, feel free to reach out to us."

"You got it. Thanks! Knowing that makes me feel a bit more secure. Although, hopefully, I'll have your number but never actually have to use it!" Li Xiaoguo felt a wave of relief. "If I ever get so scared that I actually have to call you for help, that would mean things have really gone south. Let's hope it doesn't come to that!"

The three of them stood by the door of Li Xiaoguo’s bedroom. While listening to her, Yan Xue glanced into the room; it wasn't large, and the walls were covered with manga posters, all very girlish in style.

"You like shoujo manga?" Yan Xue asked, as her style of dress didn't suggest it at all.

"I don't!" Li Xiaoguo was taken aback by the question. Realizing what Yan Xue was looking at, she waved her hands dismissively. "Those aren't mine! They were left by the previous tenant. The apartment is a bit old, and I tried to peel them off at first, but the wall plaster started coming off with them. If I tore them all down, the room would look a mess, and the landlord might dock my deposit. So, I just left them. They’re not that bad."

"That’s true. Losing your deposit over something like that wouldn't be worth it," Yan Xue said with a smile. As someone who also rented, she understood completely. Yet, she was curious—why would a girl so worried about a deposit be willing to forfeit two months' rent just to leave? "Since you're so afraid of your roommate, why did you choose to share with him in the first place? Who moved in first?"

"He did. I was the second, and Cong Fangfang was the last," Li Xiaoguo replied. "But when I moved in and saw a male roommate, I was a bit worried. The landlord told me he had the master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and wouldn't share our facilities. I thought about how the news is always full of stories about women living alone being targeted, so I thought having a male roommate might actually be safer. For the first three months, I barely saw him. I don't know if he was busy with work, but he always came home very late, missing me entirely. I only heard him, never saw him, so I had no idea he was such a creep."

"Did he ever do anything that made you fear for your safety?" Kang Ge asked, lowering his voice, as she had only mentioned his strange staring.

"If you're asking for a specific action, not really. It’s just... I don't know how to describe it. You should go meet him yourselves. Really, once you see him, you’ll understand exactly what I mean!" Unable to find the words, Li Xiaoguo suggested they see for themselves.

"You mentioned earlier that Cong Fangfang wasn't as afraid of him?" Yan Xue asked.

"She seemed better than me," Li Xiaoguo laughed self-deprecatingly. "I look tough, but I’m actually a coward. Cong Fangfang was tiny, but she was much braver than me. I’d avoid the kitchen whenever he was there because he made me so uncomfortable, but Cong Fangfang seemed not to notice at all. She didn't pay him any mind, and they just went about their own business."

"When was the last time you saw Cong Fangfang?" Yan Xue asked, turning to the official record.

The conversation with Li Xiaoguo was somewhat productive, but she couldn't provide a specific time for when Cong Fangfang went missing. She had been away on a business trip, and by the time she returned, Cong Fangfang was already gone. Thinking she was just away on a trip too, she hadn't paid it any mind until the landlord started asking around and eventually called the police in a panic.

After speaking with Li Xiaoguo, Yan Xue and Kang Ge carefully entered Cong Fangfang’s room.

It was slightly more spacious than Li Xiaoguo’s. According to Li Xiaoguo, the rent varied by room size; she had chosen the cheapest option to save money, while Cong Fangfang hadn't been willing to pay for the master suite but didn't want the smallest room either, so she had been satisfied with this one.

The room was decorated meticulously, looking like one of those "exquisite life" sample rooms found online. The bedding was a matching set of champagne-colored satin with lace trim. The walls were covered in a sophisticated sage-green wallpaper—Yan Xue recognized it as a "Morandi" color she had seen online.

Everything in the room was orderly, showing that Cong Fangfang had put both a lot of heart and money into decorating it.

Li Xiaoguo explained that Cong Fangfang had put up the wallpaper herself. She had rented the room a month after Li Xiaoguo, spent time renovating and airing it out, and only moved in a month later.

"I asked her back then, 'Why spend so much on a rental?' But Cong Fangfang said she couldn't afford to buy a house anytime soon, and since she wouldn't be able to save enough in a year or two, she’d rather spend her days living happily and comfortably," Li Xiaoguo said, leaning against the door frame. "I’ve moved many times and had all sorts of roommates. Even though I can’t live like Cong Fangfang, I truly envy her pursuit of a beautiful life."